Severe Thunderstorm Warning, or: On Being Terminal in my Twenties

From the Family of Laura Ingram. May her voice continue to reach new heights during these impossible days ahead.

Severe Thunderstorm Warning, or: On Being Terminal in my Twenties

This hospital room, lit by lighting.

This radio-static arrhythmia,

this rounding doctor with his wrinkled white coat

who cannot hear my heartbeat over the next thunderclap.

I snatch his stethoscope, press the shining diaphragm to the window

listen to the perfect pounding pulse

rain against…